February 6, 2014 11:29 am

Here’s what Pete Carroll had to say yesterday:

(Opening…) “What an incredible day we had today. There’s just not enough words to describe the emotion and the exchange that was given from the fans and our players to the fans and the fans to the players. So it was just an amazing day. The consistency of the intensity of the fans through the parade was amazing and the frustrating part was that you couldn’t touch everybody and give everybody a chance to feel the gratitude that we have for this whole relationship. So it was extraordinary and I can’t imagine one better than that. That was just over the top. So beautiful day today, fun here at the stadium, and we were really proud to bring the Lombard Trophy home to the 12th Man, there’s no question and the whole Northwest. So proud of it. So what do you got?”

(On what it felt like to be in the parade…) “It was just constant intensity and fun. The thing that struck me so were the little kids, that would sit in the front row, and knowing that we would… and they were screaming and hollering and some of them were kind of intimidated by it, but to know that they had this moment and hopes that they’ll remember their connection with their parents and their families cheering for. But I think touching from the young to the old was a very, very unique opportunity that we’ve shared and it’s a great gift.”

(On going back to the Super Bowl has always been the goal for him…) “Let me say it even more specifically. It’s not repeating for me, we’re trying to do something really good for a really long time and we want to see how far we can go and someday, we look back and see what we accomplished. In the middle of it, I don’t think it’s time to try to assess it but this year, in my mind; I never talked about the Super Bowl. I talked about trying to help these guys be the best they can possibly be and that’s what we’ll turn around, we’ll try to have the best offseason of their individual lives and as a team and then we’ll go through all of the stages of it to see how far we can take it. If we played really, really well again and find all those connections to our high level of performance, we will be right in the middle of all of this stuff and see where that takes. Yeah, it’s over a long period of time is what we’re trying to achieve.”

(On if there is one thing above all that he has learned this season…) “I don’t know if there is anything that stands out that way, I don’t know if I have a good answer for you there, but I had witness a team coming together and growing in great maturity and the kind of mentality that it takes to not be satisfied at any time, to not overlook stuff as they went through it, to have a very mature approach to it and demonstrate that all the way through. Everybody said, ‘How are you going to win the Super Bowl if you don’t have any experience?’ Well I don’t think they understand us and how we’re doing it. That was never even a question. We were ready to go perform like we were capable and we went out and showed that on game day. That’s really the mentality that we need. So I’ve watched that happen. This team has acquired that and it’s something really special.”

(On the Seahawks getting closer as a team when they traveled to New Jersey/New York…) “I think so. We had talked about that in the meeting the other day; I think it was Tuesday I guess, that we got better throughout the whole process. We got better in the first week of preparation and in the second week, it even got tighter. Even with all the distractions and all the issues that everybody thinks that’s going to throw you out of whack, we just seemed to zero it even better and when we did the work the meetings and on-the-field work, it was perfect, it was exactly the way it was supposed to go. So that’s a big accomplishment and we own that we’ve got to see if we can recapture it the next time around.”

(On what his number one priority is right now heading into the offseason…) “Well the priority for us is to get back to work and work really hard again. That’s going to be really important. It’s not something that’s going to be something from outside of us. We have what we need; we just need to get back to work when the time comes. With the right attitude and the right focus and that’s all I’m concerned about. We’ll have the opportunity to add some players to our team through the draft and all; we’ll take a good look at free agency. There are some very difficult decisions and things that we’ll have to make, as you always do at this time of year. I don’t see anything that we need to add, we just need to get better and these players know that they got better all the way ‘till the last game of the season. That’s always out there for us and that’s going to be our focus.”

(On how the Seahawks’ Super Bowl championship celebration compares to other Super Bowl championship celebrations…) “I’ve never seen it like this and it’s not because of any of the hype and the buildup about it, it’s about the people. The people in this area and the support that they have and the love in their heart to cheer for this football team is very, very special and is very unique and it’s been demonstrated throughout the seasons over many years. But in this opportunity to be a world championship club and all that, to share that back with them, it just brings out even more. Just the true connection and the energy and the love that they have, it’s just really hard to describe it other than it’s very real and it’s really cool to have.”

(On what he was told about the fans before he was hired as the head coach…) “All that I knew really was… I had been to the old dome and I saw that one, the Kingdome, I was there to play some games there. Knew what that was like. I didn’t attribute to the fans or attribute to the Dome. Then we came to play the Huskies up here, in an open stadium with a track and all and it was a spread out field. They were always, always very intense and I could never understand why it was like that. Well I found out it’s the people. It’s their heart that they bring; it’s their love to support and root for their teams. We put them in CenturyLink and it’s world class, it’s beyond. It’s a world record setting. So nobody could’ve explained that to me, nobody did to the extent that I’ve learned and come to appreciate it.”

(On the importance of Michael Bennett since he is a free agent…) “Well we want this team together, we want to see if we can keep this team together. Every decision is difficult that we have to face and guys that are at the end of their contracts, those are big issues for us. We love the guys, we love what they do and what they bring, and we’d like to keep together as best as we can. John [Schneider] will be faced with some really challenging discussions and things to get that done, but we’ll very much in concert on it and we want to get done and we’ll go about it one step at a time and it’ll take us a good while, always with our eye on what’s going on with the draft and all that and we’ll see if we put it together just right. Michael is one of those guys.”

(On how the team can get better after winning the Super Bowl…) “Oh we could be way better in so many ways. You can see the improvement that we’ve made defensively. At the end, our tackling was extraordinary in the championship game. The fundamentals of this game allow us to always be reaching to get better and across the board, we can. I think you’ll see us utilize our personnel better in time when we get to know our guys. It was half way through the year before we put our pass rush together, where we really had a sense and a plan for it. I think you’ll see Russell [Wilson] continue to grow. He’ll be more efficient, he’ll be better than ever because he will put in all of the work and time and he will just grow. I think that coming together to bring Percy into this offense and seeing how he can add to it, we’re just scratching the surface there. The growth of the young guys that have been contributing on the defensive side, still Bobby Wagner and KJ and all of those guys coming together, they will improve and get better. So there’s tons of ways. I don’t know how Hauschka can kick it a whole lot better or I don’t know if Jon Ryan can kick it a whole a lot better, but I know we could improve with our return game, you know the returning kickoff part of it and I think Golden, after a full year of doing it, will be a tremendous asset for us that we can get better. So there’s a ton of ways. We can also get rid of those penalties a little bit better than we did during this season. That will be a big factor for us.”

(On if has talked to the team on what will happen after today…) “Yeah we’re done. We disperse today. Yeah we did that on Tuesday.”

(On when he will see the team again…) “April 21. Yeah it seems like forever. April 21. So I think we walk out of here, totally arm and arm, with the thought that we’re going to have a great offseason and that means that the guys have to be really committed to having a great offseason because they have a lot of distractions and a lot of people pulling them in different directions. So we’ve addressed that… quite frankly, each guy has got to set his plan in motion and not let the distractions get in the way of the hard work that it takes to put this thing back together. My language and my message to the guys wasn’t anything different. I didn’t surprise them with what I was talking about, but I think that it will be an extraordinary opportunity because it’s so difficult for teams to come back and play really well after winning the Super Bowl. We take that challenge on right nose-to-nose and we’ll go out there and see what we can do about it.”

(On if free agent restrictions are an example of distractions that comes along with success…) “Well I think that it’ll be so far out of our control and so far out of our messaging, that they’ll be on their own. That’s why we’ve asked them to stay connected to us as a staff, but just also to each other so that they can keep the language and all and that they make really good decisions and that they take care of themselves and work on their weaknesses and get stronger and all that kind of stuff. There will be a lot of guys around, but we just can’t do anything in an organized fashion. So I’m just hoping that the 24/7, our commitment to leaving no doubt, we’ll stand strong with our guys. I think it will.”

(On if there are any players that will go undergo surgery at this time…) “Well I’m glad that you gave me a chance to mention that. We came out of this season so tremendously healthy. We are so fortunate that we are… we were strong in the last game. I think we had by far the best effort in connection to keeping our health and the wellbeing of our football team throughout a season I’ve ever been around and we come out of this season stronger, we were fast in the fast game. In the last game, we were strong and fit and that means that we go into the offseason with that as well. So we have so few guys that will have to go through surgeries. There are some things that will pop up, but we enter in a really good level of conditioning so that it should help us take off from there when the work begins again. So I think Sam Ramsden did an extraordinary job of orchestrating the kind of new approach to it and it certainly paid off.”

(On how Percy felt after the Super Bowl…) “He’s felt great. He was frustrated that there wasn’t more that he could do, but he comes out of this season ready to have a great offseason. So we’re very fortunate for him as well.”

(On Richard Sherman’s injury status…) “Well he had a second degree sprain, a high ankle sprain, but you saw him today. He was getting around on it pretty well. He got out of the boot yesterday. So he’ll be okay. It’s going to take him some time. It’s going to take him a number of weeks before he’ll be back to full speed, but he looked better than we thought he might.”

(On if there was a challenge in playing this late that he hasn’t thought about the free agency issue…) “No. John [Schneider] is all over it. No not at all.”

(On Kam Chancellor’s hip…) “He felt stronger at the end of the year than he did in the middle of it. So he enters into the offseason. We’ll take a good look at him. There wasn’t nothing imminent right now that we needed to deal with, but we will really monitor that closely because it did nag through the season. But he did say that he felt the best that he’s felt all year. Coming out of the last game if you can imagine that. So there are a number of guys that stated that as well. So we feel very fortunate.”

(On the coaching staff staying intact for next year…) “It looks like that. I’m thrilled about that that we can maintain great continuity. We never know what’s going to happen at the combine. Stuff does happen and I appreciate again the opportunity. I think that Dan Quinn, coming into this situation did an extraordinary job. He put his stamp on it like he’s to you, but he did it in really historic fashion. We gave up fewer points this year. We set a new record for the franchise that we set this year that we set last year; we broke it this year, with fewer points than ever and that’s really the indicator and the response that he got from his players and the consistency and the buy in from the staff and all the guys did a great job. Kris Richard, Rocky [Seto], Kenny [Ken Norton Jr.], Robert Saleh and Travis Jones, who came with us this year. He had a fantastic year. We’re very, very fortunate again that we keep this crew together. Tom [Cable] and Darrell [Bevell] both guys had some interest. Some people talked about them for head coaching jobs. They’re going to be with us as it seems right now. We’re just going to get better. I’m really, really pleased with the work with the whole staff. Brian Schneider had another great year on special teams. We have a lot of real positive things we end this season on. Not just the winning part of it, but the health of our football team , the attitude of our football team, the approach that we have going into the offseason and then the continuity of the staff are really great benefits for us.”

(On if he ever heard back from the league about the sideline incident that happened with Jeremy Lane during the NFC Championship game…) “Yeah what we heard was what you reported today, I heard that on the radio today, they looked into it, they gave him a warning, and there was nothing beyond that. We can let it go. We can let it go. It’s no big deal.”

(On Russell Wilson toughening it out during the game with a sore shoulder…) “He did a fantastic job of toughening it out of a sore shoulder. It was his left side, but he’s fine. It had no bearing on how he played at all. Let me say something too while I have the chance. You won’t hear from me for a while. There was a lot of concern that you had about our offense and about Russell’s performance and all that and I would continue to tell you that he was playing well within what we were expecting that we needed in games. I thought that there was always more production, there’s always more yardage out there for us and all that, but I thought he demonstrated the finish in the playoffs. I thought it was just an exquisite effort by the quarterback. His play was perfectly fitted to our football team and the plans that we needed to win the games and it couldn’t have been more obvious than it was in the Super Bowl. That was a near perfect game for him. So hanging onto the football allows us to win and he was perfect at dealing with that and distributing the ball as well as he did. So we go into this next offseason, my hopes are that he’s really going to take another big step forward and he’ll continue to get better. He doesn’t give you the football anyway. You can’t get it away from him anyway now. He already understands that. His production, his use in the players and the system will even grow and it will allow us to do some really cool things. That’s another real positive that we go into this year with when he comes out healthy and all that.”

(On Russell being sick during the Super Bowl…) “No he was bothered a little bit with a cold or something it seemed like. He’s fine.”

(On the injury status of the players on IR…) “Yeah Jesse [Williams] is doing really well, Tharold [Simon] is doing well, I think he has to have his other toe operated on. He’s got a problem on both feet. Same thing. Korey Toomer looks to be on his way back, Scruggs will be back. All of those guys will be ready to go by the time we get to OTAs and stuff and really just in the offseason work. Tharold might be a little bit longer because he’s got some surgery to do. But we do have to take a look at Russell Okung and see how his toe is and see if he’s going to be alright. That’s still up in there air a little bit. But for the most part, we’re in pretty good shape. In this case, they should all be contributing and battling for spots.”

(On Sidney Rice’s injury status…) “Sidney has had an unbelievable recovery from his surgery. He within weeks, was back up with almost total inflection extension. It’s just almost unheard of type of recovery. It’s so far ahead of schedule. So that’s great for Sid. We’ll see how that turns out. But right off the bat, we’ve never seen anybody like that. So we’re all thrilled about it.”

(On if Russell Okung will undergo surgery for his toe…) “Yeah I don’t know… we’re talking about what’s necessary. So we’ll see. He’s had a sore toe this whole time and he played through and did a great job to contribute under those circumstances.”

(On if Michael Bennett needs to have surgery on his shoulder…) “No. He has already had his shoulders looked at and he’s fine.”

(On if he will have a new contract this year…) “I’m sitting in great shape. I’m in great shape.”

(On if he’s talked to anybody that has had impact on his life after the win…) “Yeah there has been hundreds of connections with all of our friends and people that we’ve worked with over the years, all of our coaches and all of the families have just been inundated with an outpouring of support and congratulations and all that. It’s a very hard thing to go through. You go through this and you want to take everybody with you and have everybody enjoy it and we’re so zeroed in, that we don’t get to share it as much as we would like. I’ve got tons of friends that came to the game and I didn’t get to see them. But it’s wonderful to hear from everyone and we’ll try to give back as we get the opportunities. Just like today, it’s frustrating that we can’t touch everybody and share it with every single person that you’d like to, but we’ll try to do the best we can and I know everybody will understand.”

(On getting a call from Barack Obama…) “Yeah that was really fun. That was really fun. He was great. He knew that our guys call Sherm [Richard Sherman] ‘Sherm’ and Russ [Russell Wilson], he would call him ‘Russ.’ He knew everybody. It’s like he’d been watching everybody. The invitation to go is openly accepted. We’ll figure it out when that time comes, but our players will be thrilled to do that and to visit with him. So that was a real honor.”

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About

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Russ left shoulder was sore.
I believe that came from the 49er game conference game. The play when he scrambled for like 8 seconds and then threw a bomb to Baldwin.(I believe it was Navaro on the tackle) He got hit so hard and came down completely on his left shoulder. I held my breath when I saw the hit and how he bounced off the ground. I have seen many QB’s separate their shoulder on a hit like that. Was so relieved to see him get up and keep on playing. With out Russ I don’t think we get pass the 49ers. If somehow we did win that game T. Jack would have won the Super Bowl with the way the D played. It would have been a lot closer of a game though.

I’ve been watching every video on seahawks.com since getting home from the parade last night. Tons of great stuff. My eyes water watching some of it. This is the most stacked team we have ever seen in Seattle by a long shot. So proud of this amazing group!

Duke, got to give you props on being a big Malcolm Smith proponent from early on. He finally kept the injury bug at bay and has shown his stuff.

I got to be at the stadium for the ceremony and was lucky enough to sit in my season ticket seats, as did a couple of fellow fans.
I didn’t go to NY but enjoyed watching the SB with friends.
To see the team and the trophy with a city full of Seahawk fans was the perfect closure to a great season.
I could not be prouder of our team, our city, and the entire Seahawk family.

I was a bit later to the Smith bandwagon, but right behind. Ive been beating the drum for him to get playing time since he got benched when Irvin came back game 4. Speed kills, and Malcolm is plenty fast!

I was sure he’d win a starting job after last year, and I was right; just took him a little longer.

HA look at all the experts and their picks who had to eat crow.
These Experts? picked the Broncos:
Tedy Bruschi, NFL Live analyst and three-time Super Bowl champion: 27-23: “Peyton Manning has too many weapons for the Seahawk defense to handle. The second half is when the Bronco offense finds its groove.”

Frank Caliendo, comedian/impersonator and Sunday NFL Countdown contributor: 31-24. “Peyton Manning will show he can play in cold weather and will finally be able to quit his second job at the pizza place.”

Adam Caplan, NFL Insider: 24-20: “The Broncos will win this game for one primary reason: They are the one team capable of spreading out the excellent Seahawks secondary and finding favorable matchups.”

Cari Champion, First Take host: 31-26: “Peyton Manning is a surgeon. He will carve up the defense and go down as the greatest doctor in NFL history.”

Colin Cowherd, Seattle native and host, ESPN Radio’s The Herd: 26-20: “The story of the game won’t be the Seattle defense. Instead, it will be Denver’s much improved defense.”

Trent Dilfer, Monday Night Countdown analyst and Super Bowl XXXV champion quarterback: 27-24: “What will go down as one of the best Super Bowls ever, Peyton drives the Broncos down the field for a touchdown on the final possession to win it.”

Mike Ditka, Pro Football Hall of Famer, Super Bowl-winning coach and Sunday NFL Countdown analyst: 21-17: “I don’t think it’s going to be a high-scoring game, and I think that the Broncos will be able to score enough points on the defense.”

Brian Griese, ESPN college football analyst and former Broncos quarterback: 24-20. “Richard Sherman meets his match in Demaryious Thomas and Peyton Manning. The Broncos defense, with its rebuilt front seven, limits Marshawn Lynch and Champ Bailey makes a game-clinching play in the end to seal the victory.”

Jon Gruden, Monday Night Football analyst and Super Bowl champion coach: 26-24: “I’ve got to go with Peyton Manning. I’ve never seen an offense with this kind of production. I think the tempo is something the Seahawks are going to have trouble preparing for and simulating on the practice field.”

Merril Hoge, NFL Live and NFL Matchup analyst: 28-24: “The Broncos passing game has too much flexibility and versatility with its wide receivers and with the formations they will be able to create, and Manning uses that to manage the game.”

Gary Horton, ESPN Insider/Scouts Inc.: 27-20: “When I first looked at film, I thought Seattle would impose its will. The more I watched I saw Peyton is in a zone that very few players ever experience and I don’t know how Seattle can stop him.”

Tom Jackson, former Broncos linebacker and Sunday NFL Countdown analyst: 24-13. “If you give quarterback Peyton Manning and this Broncos team two weeks to prepare, they’ll figure out a way to score 24 points.”

Ron Jaworski, NFL Live and NFL Matchup analyst: 27-24: “Fast start by Peyton Manning forces Seahawks to play from behind.”

Suzy Kolber, NFL Insiders host: 24-17: “I give the slight, intangible edge to Denver based on experience. The Seahawks rotation that has kept them fresh and made them relentless, somewhat neutralized, Peyton Manning and all his weapons pull it out.”

Chris Mortensen, senior NFL analyst: 23-20: “The X factor in this game is Percy Harvin. He can flip that score, but in the end, I’m going with Peyton Manning’s ability to break down the defense just enough.”

Wendi Nix, NFL host and reporter: 27-21: “With this much time to prepare and his experience, Peyton Manning can audible enough to throw off the Seattle defense, especially if there’s not major inclement weather.”

Bill Polian, NFL Insider and six-time NFL Executive of the Year, who drafted Peyton Manning: 27-23. “The metrics all point to Seattle, but my heart points me to No. 18.”

Rick Reilly, ESPN.com columnist, Monday Night Countdown contributor and longtime Denver resident: 35-34: “I picked Denver to beat Seattle before the season started and I’m sticking with it. So … just as nobody predicted, it’s a shootout. Peyton Manning’s unheard-of, earth-rattling, never-seen-before three-yard bootleg running touchdown to win it is timed at 11.3 seconds. Millions slap their forehead in unison.”

Stuart Scott, SportsCenter anchor and Monday Night Countdown co-host: 31-23: “Because it’s not going to be that windy and it won’t be that cold, and Peyton doesn’t have to look Richard Sherman’s way.”

Jeff Saturday, Super Bowl champion, former teammate of Peyton Manning and NFL Live analyst: 28-24: “That’s what I picked at the beginning of the season, and as you look at the Broncos with the talent on offense and their defense playing as well as they have been in the playoffs – not letting teams run the ball – they really are a complete team.”

Adam Schefter, NFL Insider: 30-20. “This one’s for Peyton.”

Mark Schlereth, former Broncos offensive lineman, Denver resident, NFL Live analyst, and three-time Super Bowl champion: 31-17: “As long as it’s not windy out, I think the Broncos have too much offensively.”

Mike Tirico, Monday Night Football play-by-play commentator: 27-23: “I think Seattle has everything it takes to win the game, just having trouble seeing Peyton losing after all he has overcome getting back to this point.”

Steve Young, Monday Night Countdown analyst, Hall of Famer and three-time Super Bowl champion: 27-17. “In a quarterback-driven league in which defenses are handcuffed to a certain degree and we have one of the best quarterbacks to ever play in Peyton Manning, it’s offense over defense.”

I copied all these from RW111 and his post in some other article.

I do have to give kudos to the Fox team as most picked the Hawks to win except Jimmy Johnson.

I was surprised that the Fox crew mostly picked Seattle. It warmed my heart to see Howie pick Seattle. He’s actually been a great analyst, it only took him a handful of years to get over his anti-Seattle bias from his days as a Raider lol!

Reading what Pete has said has only doubled my hope and expectations of doing this thing again!! I an so excited to repeat this season and have no doubt that our seahawks are the favorites to repeat. Pete has this team totally in the right frame of mind to come back and repeat their dominance of each game on the march to the next Superbowl!! The players are all excited to be on this Team with their brothers. We will be even better next year!! Sorry NFL/Whiners here we come baby!!! Next year is gonna be better yet. Only question who in AFC wants to face us in AZ

Right on STTBM! I can look at Howie and have zero resentment towards the former Raider and enjoy his commentary. However when they showed Elway a bunch this week the first thing that always popped into my head was Mr. Ed. Smash him!

Thanks for the post @jawpiece. Love reading that stuff, there’s a reason I stopped watching ESPN. Quite frankly they suck and are a smug, unobjective group of pompous windbags, IMHO.What pick will make me look good? I’ve already seen someone say the Vaginers oops I mean the 9ers are going to be the favorites next year because of “all that talent”. Um Ya. Great year,time to rest and relax then comeback even bigger even faster even stronger! Go Hawks!

unfortunately the 9ner’s are our biggest threat – one more loss for us or win for them and we would have been playing in SF not Seattle – we know that the team is capable of winning in SF but it is not an easy task.

Disapointed in Trent Dilfer. He was always pro Seattle until Matt was let go. Now he goes out of his way to talk down about the team and minimize Russell Wilson’s talents. He’s very intelligent and breaks down his reports very expertly, and why I was surprised by his pick before the game. Sort of nailed his coffin with me on the weekend.

Yeah, I was wondering what the heck was wrong with Dilfer the last couple years. Carrol dumping Matt after bringing aboard Bevell (The OC Matt most wanted to work with) was harsh, so maybe thats what got Dilfer going?!

Dilfer needs to give it a rest if thats what his deal is. Sheesh! Matt would have been mangled by this sad-sack O-line. I was pissed we had T-jack rather than Hass, but you can see that Hass only had one more year left in his old body as a starter, and with our line that year there’s no way he makes it through the year. Not to mention that they regressed badly this year, so its not like they got better.

It worked out for everybody, and Matt got to mentor Locker and now is getting paid well and not taking a beating backing up Luck. So why the bitterness?

Its as bad or worse than Florio hating Seattle because he met Mora in an airport and Mora was nice to him…so when we fired his worthless no-accountability ass, Florio decided Seattle was the devil and began bagging on Carrol from Day One.

49ers will change more than Hawks next year. They have those 2 developmental players they drafted who didn’t make the field, Carradine and a running back who’s name I forget.

Also, it’s not out of the question for Kapernick to finally improve, but we don’t know what their WR group will look like. I hope Boldin goes somewhere else. It would be a mistake for them to let him go, he is tough as nails.

I don’t disrespect any of the pro-Denver analysts who had a close score. Most people, even people who picked Seattle, had the score close, so it’s only swing of a few points.

It’s the people who though Denver was going to rout Seattle that were idiotic.

The tempo could have been a problem with the Seattle defense of October. But for this game, Seattle figured out how to get a good pass rush from all combinations of the front four. Even the Mebane/Bryant combo was getting excellent push. And because Denver fell behind early and thus couldn’t use the run as a credible option, Seattle could leave the pass rush unit on for most of the game.

Also, Seattle had an excellent counter for the tempo strategy by pre-organizing their substitutions. They would have all the subs ready to go in a group by Carroll before the end of the play and immediately wave them in. It was great organization and planning that let Seattle sub as they like to do despite Denver trying to push the tempo.

The Niners will have to pay Kap a year before we have to pay RW, but they have a young team too for the most part, and their highest paid player makes like 6.6 million next year, with a cap hit of 8 million. Contrast that with Seattle, who is paying Harvin 11 million, Chancellor 8 million, and hopefully will likely be paying Tate and Bennett 6-9 million a year each if they keep them, not to mention extending ET and perhaps Sherm.

The Niners are going to be a good team for awhile too. Dont underestimate them.

Tank Carradine was a good pickup, and so was the RB Marcus Lattimore. If Lattimore can come back from that knee injury 100%, then just as Gore wears out, they will have his replacement. Lattimore was a beast in college.

And Quinton Patton should make a quantum leap next year. As it should be, our road to Dynasty Land goes through San Fran for the forseeable future.

Haven’t liked Elway since I met him 10 years ago. He was an investor in a golf course here in N. Idaho and invited my brother (a scratch golfer) to play one weekend. What a butt. My bro kicked his fanny that day.

Dilfer is indeed anti Seattle since they cut his boy Matt. Can’t figure out why he has a job on TV…

Agree rbuzby.
Wilson had 0 turnovers in the post season, and he was clutch when needed.
Despite all that idiots like F-ing A Smith and Skip Baseless still take Luck, Newton, Kaepernick and RGMee over Wilson.

I’m already looking forward to another rematch with the Niners next year, as always, but I don’t see San Francisco even remaining our top rival in the NFC Best next year.

34-year old Justin Smith has been the heart and soul of that defense for a long time, and I think he’s close to done. Anquan Boldin is 33 and will be easier to cover next year. And Frank Gore will be 31 in a couple of months. Bye-bye Neeners. They’ll be in a battle with Arizona for 3rd place in the NFC Best.

Pabs–Clem has zero sacks in his last what? 12-15 games?! How is that worth 8 million a year?

I dont get your criminal undervaluing of Tate. With limited opportunities Tate has delivered all year. With continuous opportunities, Clem has failed to deliver. Heck, Tate only caught 3 balls in the SB, but two were key, and he cleared out the safety on both TD’s. Even when he’s not making catches, he’s blocking and driving the safeties deep, opening up plays by being a decoy.

Clem can still play. And maybe he can return to form by next preseason, but at his age thats a really big risk. We’ll see what happens.

You do realize your low opinion of Tate is totally counter to Carrol and the rest of the coaches? They may not be able to keep him, but they surely want to, and will be willing to pay him pretty good money. Its just other teams will be able to afford to overpay him if they choose.

Stevos–Yes, Smith is old and hopefully will decline drastically! What a beast! But Gore wearing out may not be so cool, becuase they have Lattimore and others waiting in the wings, not to mention LaMichael James.

Clemons was a beast in the playoffs. There was a reason he got as many snaps in the SB as our beloved Bennett.

If we start dismantling this DL for a replacement level WR like Tate, then we are back to 2012. And in 2012, they would have blown the lead in the Saints or the 49ers games.

The team is fine going in with a WR group of Harvin – Baldwin – Kearse – Lockette – Draft Pick. They aren’t fine dismantling this DL.

The team is virtually at the cap with a mere 45 players signed. Even with cuts and restructuring, they barely have enough cap room to resign their guys and hand out just 1 extension. And you guys want them to go $8m for Tate? Talk about a disaster in the making.

Neither Tate or Clemons should be paid $8 million next year. Though Clemons did get a Super Bowl sack. I would say Irvin would be the natural “cheap” successor to Clemons, but don’t forget Clemons is very solid against the run where Irvin may never be able to hold up against the run as a full-time DE.

I’m sure figuring out what to do with Irvin, who has proven pass rush talent at the least, is one of those areas Carroll sees as a place for improvement of the team.

Tate is a bit undervalued because he is drawing #1 receiver coverage (best opposing CB is covering him at all times) which lets Baldwin and Kearse make more plays. But on the other hand, Tate isn’t consistently beating #1 receiver coverage, which is why I say he is not a #1 WR and shouldn’t be paid anything like it. I would agree with the CBS Sports guy and put his free agent value at around $5-6 million/yr tops.

But, I think his true value is even less than that. If I were Seattle management, I’d be paying Tate no more than $4 million/yr with perhaps incentives and option opt-out clause if he really exceeds expectations. But frankly, with guys like Daniel Synder floating around, armed with $14 million+ in cap space, there’s a good chance guys get massively overvalued.

How much money should a run-first offense be allocating to receivers? The Sidney Rice signing was partly, I believe, a strategy to utilize available cap space. I would bet 2-1 that John Schneider’s models always had them doing something about Rice and Miller’s contracts in 2014, unless those guys were All-Pro.

I still havent stopped smiling:) i have watched the game everynight this week, winning doesnt get old:)

Anyway since you guys brought this up here are my thoughts….
I dont think Tate or Clem will be back. Harvin, Baldwin, Kearse and I even think Rice has a chance to return at reduced rate. Maybe draft another WR and were set there. Maybe Christin Michael can be the punt returner.

If we sign Bennett that hurts Clems chance of returning. Also we are grooming Mawoya and have Scruggs in the wings so we should be fine there, im sure we will draft a few DLine guys too. Clint McDonald needs to be resigned, very solid reserve.

Breno and McQuistan will be gone with Bailey and Bowie ready to go. Unger was bad this year btw, not sure whats wrong with him, his snaps were low and soft all year and his blocking wasnt good either. We will draft a few guys here too.

Actually, Wilson did have a turnover in the playoffs. He fumbled the very first play of the game when he tried to avoid Aldon Smith’s sack. Still, he bounced back from that even after we spotted them ten points and won the game. His passes were cold money in the Superbowl 70% completion, two TD’s 206 yards plus another 26 yards rushing. Manning can have the meaningless record of most completions ever in a Superbowl as they were only good for eight points. This is a case where stats miss the core of the story. I just read the latest issue of Sports Illustrated with Mebane and Bennett on the cover nailing Manning. They have a quote in there by Russell Wilson that makes me dig the guy even more. It talks about after the game was over and all the media interviews were over, Russell headed from the showers to the lockers and Baldwin was near by at his locker and Wilson said, “Doug, Doug! We whipped their ass, that shit wasn’t even close.”
I would say that’s pretty surprising as we generally hear very conservative audio from Russell, but that was pretty cool to hear the guy can be normal and express some real emotion.

I agree Clem is very good vs the run, but after his first 4-5 games back this year, he’s had one sack, and that was in the Niner loss. He got one in the SB, but he has looked a step slow the last three months. You dont pay middling pass rushers who can stop the run anything close to 8 million a year.

Either he comes out on fire in TC, or he takes a big paycut or gets cut.

I dont see Seattle having to gut the D-line just because they lose Clem. And he may not leave. Even if we lose Bennett–a horrible thought, I know–we have hopefully Williams at DT next year, with possibly McDaniels back, and Jason Hill and Greg Scruggs to play the Hybrid DT/DE spot. We should be ok there.

I certainly hope Tate doesnt cost 8 million. But top WR’s are making 11 million, and not only is Tate a solid number 2, he’s occasionally shown up as a One, he just needs the opportunity. He is also more explosive than anyone on the team excepting Harvin, and is far more durable than any other WR.

Even Baldwin had several games where he had one catch or no catch, and Baldwin dropped more passes than Tate this year. Hell, he dropped 3 in a row in his first start!

Baldwin is a great guy and a fine player, but he’s not as explosive or durable as Tate. Hopefully Tate resigns, but thinking he’s only worth 3-4 million a year is ridiculous. Even based on stats alone he’s worth far more. I will be happy if we can get him with Rice’s money 6-7.5 a year. But we’ll see. I wont cry if we sign him for less!

MikefromJersey–Ive been saying Unger sucked all year. Im pretty sure he had a fairly serious tricep injury, perhaps partial tear? that bothered him at least half the season. I also heard maybe a pec injury on top of that. He’s not the strongest biggest guy as is, when beaten up he just gets manhandled.

He got the Pro Bowl on rep alone. Well, that and he’s got great technique and is very tricky. Players respect his skill and trickery and intelligence.

I think he will be back to his old self next year though, not worried too much about him. But yeah, I pray Giac and both our G’s get beaten out in camp for their starting jobs. No way can we afford to pay McQ and Breno what they made this year–most overpaid players on the team.

I dont see us keeping Sherm if he wants more than 8 million a year. We have Lane and Maxwell, and others waiting in the wings. Plus Thurmond is likely to find FA a drag, as I doubt hes in demand due to his being one step from a year ban. Good as Sherm is, I cant see paying him 13 million a year, and for all we know Dude may ask for Revis money.

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